Everybody Decides to Rob a Bank on 'The Magicians'

In fantasy, normal human stakes often don’t apply. For example, in the Harry Potter books, the originally destitute titular wizard gets rich overnight in his very first adventure thanks to an inheritance that had been sitting in a goblin dungeon for years. As the anti-Potter, the characters on Syfy’s The Magicians aren’t so lucky. Even with a myriad of spells and hexes at their disposal, literally all the main characters end up short on cash this week. And so, these magic-wielders do what anyone else would do in the same situation. They decide to organize a heist.

Spoilers for The Magicians Season 2, Episode 7, “Plan B” ahead.

After weeks of having all the characters on The Magicians in different locations, the show finally gets the gang back together for one big bank-robbing jamboree. Julia and Kady need a ton of money for a demon abortion, the kingdom of Fillory is too broke to go to war, and Quentin — still stuck with Alice’s spirit in his back — decides he will still fulfill his promise to Julia to help her no matter what. Alice’s spirit is even cool with the idea of everybody robbing the bank.

In many ways, “Plan B,” is the lightest episode this season. By reuniting all of the characters, there’s a buoyant sense of fun this time around, which has been occasionally lacking in previous episodes throughout this season. Plus, the primary conflict of robbing the bank helps to focus another compelling plot point that has become the standout most compelling story of the season thus far: What is going to happen to Alice’s niffin spirit?

Early in the episode, it’s established that even real-world banks are protected by magicians and magic wards. This means that robbing even an ordinary bank won’t be easy for the gang. And when Penny is trapped, Quentin is forced to make a deal with the devil — only, in this case, that devil is the pushy ghost of his ex-girlfriend living inside his back tattoo. And though Alice takes over Quentin’s body to help in a crucial moment of the heist, everything goes wrong and the gang is up against a hardcore battle magician intent on destroying them. But, thanks to some last-minute time-resets, they more or less pulls off the heist.

By the end, it seems like they got the money, and Julia is able to go through with her demon abortion. But, as the episode ends, the happy, funny heist episode is over and everything gets super-dark again. Kady tells Julia that there was a “complication” with the procedure. Based on the way Julia is laying there’s actually no way to tell what this complication is. But, if Julia ends up not being able to walk, fans are going to freak out. With the second season more than half over, the show has a lot of new problems to wrap up. But Julia’s complication combined with Alice entering Quentin’s body have ratcheted things up a considerable notch.